Written by Julia Rodriquez, Asst. Opinions Editor

The 34^th annual Connell Lecture will be held Thursday March 10 at 7:00 pm.  This lecture will take place at Jennet Lecture Hall, Room 111 of Dewar College of Education and Human Services building.  The Clyde Eugene Connell Visiting Lecturer Program welcomes Dr. Reed F. Noss as this year’s speaker.

Noss will be discussing his views on the unsettled topic of competing value systems in modern conservation.  He is a successful author of over 300 publications, seven of which, are books, and is one of the top 500 most highly cited authors of all disciplines worldwide. Forgotten Grasslands of the south: Natural History and Conservation, is his most recent book.  Fire Ecology of Florida and the Southeaster Coastal Plain is his next book.

Dr. Noss earned his B.S. in Education from the University of Dayton, an M.S. in Ecology from the University of Tennessee, and a Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Florida.  The Board of Governors of the Society for Conservation Biology, the Board of Trustees of the Florida Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, Florida’s Acquisition and Restoration Council, and the Federal Advisory Committee for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program are the boards and panels that Noss has served on.  From 1993 to 1997 he served as Editor-in-Chief for the flagship journal of Conservation Biology.  Then from 1999 to 2001 he was involved in the Society for Conservation Biology by serving as the President and was a co-founding member.  Later, in 2006 until 2008, he served as President of the North American Section of the Society.  Dr. Noss is an elected fellow of AAAS, and on numerous occasions has testified to the U.S. Congress.

The Clyde Eugene Connell Visiting Lecturer Program has been prosperous from its beginnings.  Dr. Connell retired from the faculty at Valdosta State University in 1980 and students, friends, colleagues and other individuals who wished to see this program continue have financially supported it to honor his retirement.

Clyde Eugene Connell was born August 11, 1916 in Naylor, Ga. After graduating he joined the U.S. Navy, serving in the Medical Corps.  In 1948, the country of Egypt honored him for his role in abating a cholera epidemic and gave him the nation’s Gold Medal Service Award.

In 1952, Connell retired from the Navy and went on to get a B.S. in Biology at Valdosta State College, a M.S. and a Ph. D. in Animal Ecology at the University of Georgia.  In 1958 he came back to Valdosta State College until retirement in 1980 as Head of Biology Department and a professor.

Tax-deductible donations to the Visiting Lecturer Program can be made.  To do so, make the donation to the Valdosta State University Foundation, the Department of Biology, or the Office of Finance and Administration, Valdosta State University.   To ensure they are made specifically to the Visiting Lecturer Program, these donations should be labeled, “For the Connell Lecture Fund.”